Jonny to lean on ‘Mo’ in T20 bid

Yorkshire start their campaign against Notts at Trent Bridge on Friday and Bairstow said: “He’s a great man, Mo.

“He's been a good friend over a long period of time, and we've shared some really special memories together.

“In Test cricket, in one-day cricket, in T20 cricket, you name it… he's done it all within the game.

“To bring that wealth of experience and calmness and skill-set to the group, he will be a great guy to lean on from my point of view, whether that’s chatting to him from behind the stumps, or whatever.”

Moeen, 38, is part of a new-look and experienced T20 squad that Yorkshire hope will take them to glory.

The Australian seamer A.J. Tye, 39, along with the Pakistan overseas pair of Faheem Ashraf, 32, and Hasan Ali, 31, will bring bowling firepower, although neither Pakistani is available for this opening game.

Yorkshire have seamer Logan van Beek, 35, as their other overseas, plus all-format batsman Sam Whiteman, 34, who signed in January.

The club has only three times reached Finals Day in the 23-year history of the tournament, with a best finish of beaten finalists in 2012.

“We’ve reached Finals Day three times, which is not good enough,” said Bairstow.

“It’s nowhere near good enough, and there’s got to be a reason for that.

“We've got some new faces which, off the back of the Championship stuff, will bring a new energy into the group, and we've got a bit more experience that we haven't necessarily had over the last few years.

“Those experienced guys can hopefully bring in ideas and know-how and we can go about it in that way.”

For Bairstow, the biggest challenge might be trying to fit everyone into the side when available.

He believes that influx of experience could make all the difference.

“We've brought guys in that have won with Perth Scorchers, we've got guys like Mo who have won all around the world, and so on,” he added.

“We’ve got new overseas signings and people who bring a different skill-set which is really exciting for us as a group.

“It’s about learning, it's about getting better, it's about executing skills, and I like to think of it as pillars of experience.

“You’ve got people like myself at the top (of the order), you've got Mo, and you've got the guys at the back end as well, so I think that we’ve got a really good blend.”

There is a new-look to the competition this year, with clubs playing 12 instead of 14 group games.

Teams are now split into three groups of six, with sides playing their five group rivals home and away, as well as one home and one away game against teams drawn randomly from outside their group - in Yorkshire’s case, Gloucestershire at home and Hampshire away.

The top-two from each group advance to the quarter-finals, along with the two-best third-placed sides.

The whole thing is done and dusted more quickly too, with the group stages ending on July 12 and Finals Day at Edgbaston on July 18.

Notts, for their part, are captained by Joe Clarke and their overseas players are the Pakistan seamer Mohammad Ali and the South African spin bowling all-rounder George Linde, although Linde is unavailable for this game due to visa complications. England’s Ben Duckett is available for the hosts.

Yorkshire squad: Bairstow (captain), Ali, Bess, Chohan, Cliff, Hill, Luxton, Lyth, Moriarty, Revis, Tye, Vagadia, van Beek, Wharton.